[Dixielandjazz] Transcribing Solos - listen vs. hear

[dingle at baldwin-net.com]

Nancy Giffin wrote:

>-------------------------------------------------------
>
>Steve,
>I "listen" with my ears.
>I "hear" with my heart.
>Love and hugs,
>Nancy
>
>  
>
>>From: Steve Barbone
>>Subject: Transcribing Solos
>>
>>Transcribing helped me considerably to actually "hear" what I was listening
>>to. It is one thing to like what one listens to, but IMHO, it is another
>>matter entirely to really "hear" what one listens to. And I suspect that
>>many other musicians can differentiate between listening and "hearing"
>>because musicians, again IMO, hear differently than non-musicians.
>>    
>>
> a

The real value in transcribing music whether it be solos or just the 
scoring of what was composed.
Thank goodness that Paul Mertz was on hand and interested n transcribing 
Bix's four tone poems, In a Mist, In the Dark, Flashes, or Candle Lights.
Else we wouldn't have them.
Now nobody will ever play them  the way that Bix did -- after all they 
flowed from his brain. Yet over the years I have  been grateful that 
these works were captured fro others to leans and play, adding their own 
sense of phrasing, interpreting  in their feelings. I have several times 
had the pleasure of hearing Ralph Sutton, Don Ewall, Paiul Mertz, and 
many others play these marvelous works. Red Nichols had all four in his 
book, three by Bobby Hammock and one, I may say, by myself..
Bunny Berigan had wonderful little charts of them, and the guitar 
dynasty of the Pizzarelli family played an all guitar version of the 
suite, arranged by Paul Mertz, on guitars adding Bix' Davenport Blues to 
the Mix. Laudable, gorgeous to the ear, and exquisit in the mindplay 
they evoke.
The true value in transcribing is that the material is not lost. 
Transcirptions are merely saving the record for the future to take 
inspiration from.
Paul, a long time family friend, once told me at a get together at his 
home in the early 1960's in LA that he "had a hell of a time doing it. 
Bix would play it and I would write it down, and then ask him to play it 
again so I could check  it. His mind was always composing and just 
getting him to play it back the same way he did the first time was the 
real challenge." Imagine if they'd had tape recorders in those days. 
What wonders might have been if we also had the "Theme andVariations" of 
that genius musical mind? Thanks to Paul Mertz we at least have the 
first round preserved for all to draw upon for inspiration.
Don -- still in awe of his music - Ingle